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I can't say I blame them. And before you ask me why I'll tell you. For good or bad, we've inherited the Alyeska mantle. Alyeska built the pipeline and they run it, but we use it. I'm afraid there's a wide gray area of non-discrimination here. In most people's eyes they were pipeline, we are pipeline."
    Finlayson reflected on his,next words. "It's hard not to feel a bit sorry for Alyeska. They were pretty cruelly pilloried. Sure, they bore the responsibility for a remarkable amount of waste, and incurred vast cost overruns, but they did complete an impossible job in impossible conditions and, what's more, brought it in on schedule. Best construction company in North America at the time. Brilliant engineering and brilliant engineers -- but the brilliance stopped short of their PR people, who might as well have been operating in downtown Manhattan for all they knew about Alaskans. Their job should have been to sell the pipeline to the people. All they succeeded in doing was in turning a large section of the population solidly against the line and the construction company."
    He shook his head. "You had to be truly gifted to get it as wrong as they did. They sought to protect the good name of Alyeska, but all they did, by blatant cover-ups -- it was alleged -- and by deliberate lying, was to bring whatever good name there was into total disrepute."
    Finlayson reached into a drawer, took out two sheets of paper and gave them to Dermott and Mackenzie. "Photostats of a classic example of the way they handled those under contract to them. One would assume they learned their trade in one of the more repressive police states. Read it. You'll find it instructive. You'll also understand how by simple thought transference we're not in line for much public sympathy."
    The two men read the photostats.
    Alyeska Pipeline Supplement No. 20
    Service Company Revision No. 1
    Pipeline and Roads April 1, 1974
    Job Specification Page 2004
    C. IN NO EVENT SHALL CONTRACTOR OR ITS PERSONNEL REPORT A LEAK OR AN OIL SPILL TO ANY GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY. Such reporting shall be the sole responsibility of ALYESKA. CONTRACTOR shall emphasize this to all its supervisory personnel and employees.
    D. Further, IN NO EVENT SHALL CONTRACTOR OR ITS PERSONNEL DISCUSS, REPORT, OR COMMUNICATE IN ANY WAY WITH NEWS MEDIA whether the news media be radio, television, newspapers or periodicals. Any such communication by CONTRACTOR shall be deemed to be a material breach of CONTRACT by CONTRACTOR. All contracts with news media - regarding leaks or oil spills shall be made by ALYESKA. If news media people contact CONTRACTOR or CONTRACTOR'S personnel, they shall refer news media to ALYESKA without further discussing, reporting or communicating. CONTRACTOR shall emphasize the aforementioned ALYESKA news media requirements to all its supervisory personnel and employees.
    Dermott rested the photostat on his knee. "An American wrote this?"
    "An American of foreign extraction," Mackenzie said, "who obviously trained under Goebbels."
    "A charming directive," Dermott said. "Hush-up, cover-up or lose your contract. Toe the line or you're fired. A shining example of American democracy at its finest. Well, well." He glanced briefly at the paper, then at Finlayson. "How did you get hold of this? Classified information, surely?"
    "Oddly enough, no. What you would call the public domain. Editorial page, All-Alaska Weekly, July 22, 1977. 1 don't question it was classified. How the paper got hold of it, I don't know."
    "Nice to see a little paper going against the might of a giant company and getting away with it. Restores one's faith in something or other."
    Finlayson picked up another photostat. "The same editorial also made a despairing reference to the 'horrendous negative impact of the pipeline on us.' That's as true now as it was then. We've inherited this horrendous negative impact, and we're still suffering from it. So there it is. I'm not saying we're entirely friendless, or that the